Unfortunately, this dedication to fact is the films major weakness. There are no real characterizations of any of the major roles, no central character the audience can connect with, either on the American or Japanese forces. This lack of a so called staring role (which both sides should have had) makes the film feel more like a documentary then a movie. What characters the film does center on are all flat and rather uninteresting. Not to mention poorly acted.

Despite this, the film provides a great understanding of how the attack really occurred, and gives a wonderful visual feast of the disaster. For 1970, when this film was released, the visual effects are outstanding. Definitely worth at least one viewing, more if you're a World War II buff.

The Day Of Infamy Recreated To Chilling Perfection (Rating: 5.00)
Review : Many films attempt to tell true stories. One of the few that does justice to its subject is Tora! Tora! Tora!, a full-scale recreation of Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to the Day Of Infamy.

Verisimilitude permeates throughout the film, from the full-sized mockups of Japanese aircraft carriers and the battleship Nagano to the Japanese Zero, Kate, and Val aircraft and American P-40 Warhawk fighters to the miniature and full-sized models of American battleships. Much of the combat footage was shot at Pearl itself and surrounding Air Force bases, while miniature work blends splendidly into the action.

The enormous cast captures the exchanges of ideas and arguments among the various players involved in the attack. The most sympathetic player is Admiral Yamamoto. The film very nicely captures his lack of desire to go to war with an America that could not possibly lose a war with Japan based on the comparative industrial power of both nations. Also captured is the greater bloodthirstiness of fellow Imperial Japanese Navy officers, leading to a chilling scene during final pre-sortie debriefing when Yamamoto orders that the First Air Fleet abort the mission should negotiations with America succeed; fellow officers universally reject such an order, until Yamamoto hisses that any officer unwilling to follow should resign at once.

Also captured are the motions of General Walter Short (Jason Robards) and Admiral Husband Kimmel (Martin Balsam), working to second-guess Japanese intentions minus intelligence data available to US Navy intelligence in Washington. Navy intelligence accurately guesses that intercepted Japanese diplomatic messages indicate Tokyo to be preapring for war, but there is never any indication that Pearl Harbor itself will be attacked.

But it is, and the attack is brilliantly recreated. Battleships are hit by torpedos and bombs, planes parked together to prevent sabotage are slaughtered trying to take off, and the result is the greatest naval disaster suffered by American arms.

But Admiral Yamamoto knows that what will result will be catastrophic for Japan, and the film ends with him staring into the sky - into the future.

For sheer perfection, Tora! Tora! Tora! succeeds.

Should have been 5 if... (Rating: 4.00)
Review : ...this movie, which got awesome air scenes and very well documented background info (politic, diplomatic, and military), had been a couple of minutes longer at the end of 1st part. And showed how Roosevelt, who was informed of the results of the (fantastic) Intelligence work -they even could pin the time of the attack- decided to keep it under wraps: so that, without any prior warning, the damage would be maximum, and the shock upon American people would be such as to suppress the reluctance they still got towards entering the war. One of the best examples of "The end justify the means". The Pearl Harbor story could as well have as title "They were expendable".

The Best Movie Ever Made About Pearl Harbor (Rating: 5.00)
Review : Tora! Tora! Tora! is the single best movie ever made about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It features excellent performances from such actors as James Whitmore, E.G. Marshall, Jason Robards and Martin Balsam. The special effects are far more convincing than what's in modern movies. It also has some of the best movie music of all time. Best of all, the movie shows the sheer complacency on the U.S. side that enabled the Japanese to successfully mount the surprise attack.

Tora! Tora! Tora! is far superior to any other movie ever made about Pearl Harbor. In fact, it is one of the absolute best movies ever made about World War II. It is a classic motion picture in its own right.

On a scale of 1 to 5, it really merits a 10.

Superb! (Rating: 5.00)
Review : After seeing Das Boot for the first time recently, my interest was piqued for another WWII movie. I remember when Tora! was in the theater while I was in high school...and that I had no interest in seeing it at the time. This is a serious-minded, fact-based film of epic proportion. It has similarities to Das Boot in that part of the story is told from the US enemy's point of view. And, oddly enough, I found the structure of the film to be somewhat reminiscent of The Deer Hunter, or even King Solomon's Mines [1950], in that there is a long, detailed build-up of the story prior to any action sequences. And once the action arrived, I sat there thinking, "How did they do this?" Especially considering the fact that this was 1970. But the biggest reward for me is the story itself, and the non-Hollywood way in which it is told here. No one would get financial backing today for a film of this expense coupled with such a non-fiction approach.